Freeing the Beast

An Unknown Provider

Astrid

They tricked me. I've been tricked by my best friends! You can't trust anyone anymore.

After thirty minutes of looking for Michael whom Moira and Eva swore would be here, in every nook and cranny, I shrug and give up, making my way to an empty table at the corner of the club.

It's the place I usually sit when I don't want to be bothered, especially when I'm in a pouting mood because my supposed best friends lied about the guy I've been obsessed with since Freshman year being here.

The girls and I have been to this club on many occasions; it's conveniently close to SCT, and the police rarely show up. Besides, it's about ten PM right now, and they never raid it that early.

I sit at the table, with my purse on my lap and a bored expression on my face, looking like I'm watching over the leftover drinks. What I really want is get out of here, because Michael is obviously not here, and he's the only reason I came here for. I'm starting to get tired of college and techno music and loud, drunk partiers who have no regards for the sober ones. Michael is the only person who understands that about me.

"Here's your drink, Astrid." Moira comes over, sits across from me and hands me some alcoholic beverage, before gasping at something behind me.

"What is it?" I turn around to see what my best friend's wide blue eyes are about. It's my other best friend, Eva, she's chatting and laughing with a girl.

"Is that girl hitting on my girlfriend? I'm going to slap her silly."

I quickly stop my alcohol-fueled best friend by touching her shoulder. "Before you do anything stupid to get us kicked out of this club, that's Shay over there and I know for a fact that she's not hitting on Eva. I tutor her and her boyfriend. Trust me, they're just talking," I reassure Moira and let go of her arm.

Moira sits back, seeming convinced, her red hair damp with sweat, probably from dancing nonstop ever since we got here. "Thanks for explaining, I was about to do some damage, girl."

I shake my head in amusement and titter. "Right."

Moira grins and raises her brow at me. "So, have you figured out that we lied about Michael being here yet?"

"Yep. You girls play dirty," I respond, sounding more amused than annoyed.

Moira laughs and finishes her drink in one gulp. "We had to get you to come with us somehow, Astrid. You've been working nonstop lately and we are about to graduate and leave this life of wild parties and s*x and fun. Everything will be snore-fests after graduation; it'll be all about adult-stuff and working-off-to-pay-the-bills-and-loans-stuff. You need this right now!" She yells dramatically, over the music that just switched from techno to a louder hip-hop song.

She's holding on and shaking my shoulders, probably trying to shake off the bored look on my face.

"I do?" I frown, amused at her dramatization of "adult" life.

"Yes! So that, in the future, you don't regret not doing it while you had the chance. You will have like three or four kids to take care of and a boring husband who won't even f**k you twice a week."

I laugh so suddenly that I almost choke as I'm sipping my drink.

"How the hell do you come up with this stuff?" I manage to say, simultaneously coughing and laughing.

"Come one, let's go dance and blow off some steam."

I scoff, wrinkling my nose and joke, "do you really have any more steam to blow off?"

She smirks and rolls her eyes. "Fine, Debby Downer, suit yourself. You know my motto; you can never have too much fun," she says before walking away, leaving me and joining a group of dancing drunks.

     Two hours later, I'm shivering outside the club while waiting for my two best friends to come out. I've texted Eva already and she said that they will meet me outside in a few minutes.

But as I stand, leaning against the wall, I shiver from more than just the cold.

For a few months now, I've been feeling eyes on me. Like someone has been closely watching me.

Someone who apparently doesn't know what cable television is because I happen to consider myself the most boring form of entertainment. I'm honestly perplexed as to why someone would waste their time watching me, so I always end up dismissing the strange feeling.

"Come on, guys, it's so chilly out here..." I say quietly to myself, hoping that my two wild best friends can somehow be pulled by my desperation to get back to SCT and to my warm bed.

I gasp and jump away from the wall when I hear a noise behind me. I look at the dark corner, but I spot no one in the shadows behind the club. Before I can investigate further, my purse vibrates.

I dig in it to retrieve my cell phone, responding quickly once I see who it is calling me. "Stella, is everything alright?"

"No, I got fired, little sister, and now I can't afford mom's medications anymore."

"What?" Oh no!

"I don't want to be a bother...I know you're busy with school and work and everything, but please, I need you over here for a few days to stay with her while I search for another job. I'm sorry, little sister, I know how busy you are, but mom..."

"Stella, oh my God, of course. But um, I think...I think I can send you the money, in the meantime, so I don't have to leave school..."

"You can?" Stella sounds skeptical. She has every reason.

What kind of money can I possibly have to send her?

After all, my sister and I spent all of our savings to send me to SCT, even with the big scholarship I attained.

But what my sister doesn't know won't hurt her...even though I think it might hurt me.

"Yeah, I sort of have..."

A sugar daddy? Is that what I say to her? I mean, even I don't know the specifics.

"A new boyfriend. He's very rich...He'll be willing to support you until I graduate and then I will get that paid internship I applied for, and I'll be able to send you and mom some money of my own," I speak fast, hoping that the pace will make me sound more confident. Because my sister and mother need me. I need them.

I hear Stella scoff behind the phone. "Astrid, I'm not about to ask your rich boyfriend money!"

"You're not. I am. Look, it's no problem for him...He has a lot of it and he's willing to..."

"Astrid, I don't know about th..." I hear her hesitate. I can hear the worry and doubt in her tone.

That's why I respect and love my sister so much. She's taken care of me and mom without resorting to the shameful situations that are so easy to get into. She may be poor, but she has her dignity. She's beautiful and could have gotten a man to pay all of her bills for her, but Stella is better than that.

I'm not.

How do I even know it's even a man?

"Stella, I promise. I will send you the money." I hang up the phone before she can protest further because I'm not good at keeping secrets. I barely managed to keep this big secret from my two best friends.

I almost choked it out while we were out shopping last week, and Eva and Moira asked me how I could afford a hundred-dollar mini dress.

I almost told them, that last year, an anonymous donor started transferring money to my bank account. That I didn't start using it at first, until I finally gave in after I noticed it was growing and growing to almost half a million, and at the time, my sister was calling me every day, asking me if I had anything to send over from my little job as a barista.

I started sending small amounts to Stella, so she wouldn't suspect anything. So that she'd only thought that my smile got me more tips than the average barista.

Moira and Eva believed that I got a big tip at work too because that's what I told them.

I text both Moira and Eva again, this time, letting them know that I'm going to the bank and that they shouldn't look for me when it's time to go back to SCT.

I then walk to a waiting taxi and tap on the window, getting in when the driver pulls it down.

Nolan

Nolan draws in a relieved breath after seeing Astrid taking the taxi.

It's better if she gets away from establishments like this. He doesn't trust them, nor the people that come here.

He rather her be a homebody, something her bad friends prevent her from being.

For hours now, as his angel and her friends have been in that club, he's been sitting in the front seat of his car, parked at a corner behind the club.

He purchased this deliberately inconspicuous vehicle when he knew that he now had someone to protect, someone to follow.

As the taxi takes off, he turns off the tablet that he's been watching his angel on. The screen goes black as he places it in the empty seat next to him and drives away, trailing the car that carries his angel as a passenger.